Money > Prayer

Interesting article in the Washington Post today about how churches in DC are surviving. DC faced extreme suburbanization like any other American city but thankfully in the last 10 years it has experienced a genuine renaissance unlike the one we hear about up here.

Unfortunately this plan doesn’t work for Buffalo. Most city churches are in low-density, low-value neighborhoods. Big NYC Real Estate firms aren’t going to come in to save the day by buying adjoining parcels of land.

But shopping is the modern day cure-all for cultural institutions. What transportation center or Museum doesn’t have a place to shop and a place to eat anymore? A church on the east side has a Subway-its saved them. A church in Williamsville has a Tim Hortons.

Private sector investment usually works in these cases, but where is society going when we have to rely on retail and developers to save religious and cultural institutions?